


Curses to be haunted

by Rose_Violettt



Category: Doctor Sleep (2019), The Haunting of Hill House (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everyone Is Alive, F/M, but alive, but traumatized, nell and dan still alive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:21:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24045823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rose_Violettt/pseuds/Rose_Violettt
Summary: Dan saw something peculiar about the young lady who appeared in critical condition at Frazier's hospital. A miracle. For her, a hope. Other shining? Maybe. But there was definitely in Nell Crain what he could call a great sensitivity that would arouse enough curiosity to get to know her. Something that he know he should do.
Relationships: Eleanor "Nell" Crain/Dan Torrance
Kudos: 10





	Curses to be haunted

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little one about how things would go if Nell and Dan met at some point, I hardly think they would get along very well and very Fluffly. It's very small and simple, but I think it deserves to be posted. 
> 
> Its a AU were Nell would not die, but would literally be trapped in the Red Room and escaped. The same goes for Dan, because I NEED this interaction and they both deserve better and I love them <3 
> 
> I don't know if at any time they speak of the location of Hill House, only it is and Massachusetts, so I don't have an exact idea where it would be and its distance from Frazier, but ... let's pretend it is very close in this AU

There was something really strange about the way that man looked at her while she spent so much time sitting on the bench. There was definitely something strangely brilliant about that young woman who spent a lot of time looking at nothing and at the same time looking at everything. Dan had his reasons and they came before the fact that he saw something in her mind. Frazier's hospital did not receive as many transfers. But there were miracles, nothing that could stimulate more attention. These are miracles that Dan Torrance gave to the almost dead, a last breath of peace, and that the people there knew well. 

When he saw the sideways body, just out of another surgery and heard what his colleagues were saying, Dan was almost certain he would do that miracle for her too. They left her here like that. That she crawled for almost a kilometer in that state. It was an unsuccessful or given up suicide. She disappeared in the middle of an outbreak. The father would have had the same. They were owned by the house. There was a haunted house on the hills nearby... 

Dan intended not to hang on to those theories. He just wanted to see the progress of things, see his condition and wait for his fate. Meanwhile, he could feel something in his mind. A light that he was in doubt about how intense it would be. One like Billy? Or one so powerful and, like him a few years ago that seemed like millennia, hidden to survive in a world as hungry, like he did? He hoped to know. So a desire to get to know her arose within him. It was just in the day that he saw Azzie parading in the hall she was in. 

Azzie stopped provocatively at the seventh door. Teasingly he looked at Dan from the other side, before going his own way. 

Dan knew the rule and what should be done whenever Azzie entered a room. There was nothing he could do in that particular room, at least as long as she showed signs of life. Even after an involuntary sigh of relief, he entered his room. 

The young Crain must have been so much more beautiful when she looked alive. When there was no serious injury to her neck - it was the one that made her a miracle, how did she survive, where did so much strength come from to survive? How could he smell such a strong musty smell infesting that room, disappearing little by little that Dan can get used to. He saw his belongings, hoping to see the clothes and finding only a watch. Later they would tell him that there was so much mold in the clothes that they thought it was better to burn than just throw it. 

Dan looked at her, looking for a glow. Some poor lighting, impoverished over the years for the dark side of life, but still a light. He may have found her in an almost submerged corner, surviving on hope. Dan admits, he felt a certain envy. But he didn't see anything lit up like he had seen it before. Maybe Nell (wasn't her name Eleanor?) Has a glow and she doesn't look like he thought she did. At that moment, more specifically, she seemed to have left the stomach of a beast that digusted her longer than she should have. 

He looked at the one that belongs intact and the only she had. A small and simple clock. He put it on the table next to her, identifying a strong connection. Perhaps a key to find out why he was there? Maybe there was something special that explains about her? He still feeling that, now feeling her life coming, like if was stucked for a long time. She will wake up soon. 

Dan took her hand, cold and thin. He could almost see what the neck twist would have been like if its ending had been more tragic and enough that she couldn't resist. Obviously there would be a greater force that acted on it. The neck drooping at an unnatural angle, the bone jumping almost out of the skin, the mildew consuming it (like fire from a boiler) and a scream of dread. 

Dan almost shouted too. 

Dan remembered his previous state. He saw how she looked like a lost soul, or how she thought she was a lost soul, as if reaching reality after so long in an illusion. She looked at nothing and then watched the landscape, motionless most of the time. The clock, her companion, remained open in one hand, but ignored. Dan couldn't say what that peace could mean, because there was also a solemn concern. And with her there was a burning hope, so burning that it could have been she who made her wake up and be like that. Like seven days ago, after so many surgeries, she seemed alive. But Dan knows that she couldn't get out so early to the hospital, wich make him suspect about her presence there. 

Wasn't that the way people talked about Dan? Isn't that what Billy said? Did it seem so alive to someone who saw the world itself collapse? Specifically for someone who escaped a fire, more specifically still in a place so damn he didn't even know if it was possible. He was also a miracle, wasn't he? Why so much judgment, Daniel?

Well, maybe because she was there so long, trapped in her own world, that it really made him think she was in trouble. Maybe Dan don't should take the things somuch personal just because she can be, or not, shining in a intense way. As if that was the solution to bring her back, she turned to face him. 

"Hi"

"Hi"

She spent a few seconds staring at the man who seemed to appear from nowhere. "Good Morning"

Dan nodded and smiled "Good afternoon"

"Yes, yes, of course" she laughed awkwardly "Good afternoon"

The clock was still in his hand, also motionless. As her was. Dan give a step, he could ignored that. If something happen he should stay close. 

"It's everthing okay?"

"Yes, I'm just waiting for someone," she replied in a low voice. "I think" She look at a car that passed for them. 

"And are they coming yet? ''

"I hope. I can't talk to them, I... I lost my cell phone. But they must be coming soon" 

Are you sure? He wanted to ask when she looked back, this time with a more vivid expression.

"There's a pay phone across the street '' he pointed in his direction. After following her gaze she smiled at him. 

"Thank you," she began to rummage through her coat and pants pockets. Dan, faced with a certain delay, did the same. "If I still have something...

"I have some coins" he took his wallet "If you want" 

She stared at the outstretched hand, with more coins than she intended to use and Dan insist. The cloud behind his eyes start to dissiped, like coming back to the reality. 

"Thank you" smiled gratefully and took them.

Dan watched her cross the street and talk to her ride five minutes ago. He tried to occupy himself with what he was doing, cleaning the train he was a driver on and checking his wiring. Was long enough to think if was just overwelming. Or being careful. It was long enough for him to leave at the same time that she stopped next to him. 

"Thank you" she said again "I haven't used them all ..."

"You can stay"

She waved and put them a little reluctantly in her pocket.

"Who will pick you up?"

"My siblins" she answered "Or just one of my sister, they are still busy they can take a while, my brother is in trouble too" she started to justify "But thanks, for the coins" 

"I'll refund you one day ..."

"No problem. It was for a noble cause" Dan smiled "But are you really okay?" "It doesn't look like it, does it?" she looked at the street again "But yes, in a way, yes. Just... putting my head in place, you know..."

"Yes, I know" Dan emphasized too much. He still saw that glow 

"This is a good place to put things in place. I speak from experience"

Nell returned his smile. Did she have that too? Was she also following what her intuitions said, the same ones that left her there, right after leaving the hospital? Didn't know for sure what to expect there when someone came to help her, like Billy helped him? 

"And you seemed to need help" he let his thoughts out loud "With all respect" "Was it that obvious too?" she asked without conviction. She already knew the answer.

"Yes, well, it seemed to be waiting for someone," Dan continued after seconds of silence under her curious gaze "Until i saw that you spent more than an hour there."

"Has it been like this" she asked awkwardly, looking away again, perhaps disbelieving him "for your experience?"

"More or less" he replied "Unless you are" her eyes went back to him "Running away from something." 

She was silent for a long time while Dan rethought what he had said that it might be wanting to undo what he said. 

"I was running" he said. Its like that these place is were the lost souls go. They don't know exactly what they are running. He about to apologize when she interrupts him again. 

"I've been on the run" said "But it wasn't the case this time. Well, maybe I was, some things happened..." 

"Thats okay, i'm sorry..." 

"No, no..." Nell interrupt again "I would say that i'm running, yeah, and the same time no. Is some kind of curse to be haunted" she talk very fast. When she stoped her eyes are back in the street, recongnizing what did she said. She took a deep breath and looked at the sky. 

"Okay. I also had my own internal demons too. It's pretty complicated to deal with" he looked around with a solemn smile "I think that's what this bank is for" "And what do you do when they constantly come back?" she asked, still looking out into the street.

"I wondered that, too," he replied. "These things ... They came from the same place. They always see"

"Yeah ..." they spent a long time in silence until Nell added, ignoring the time "They spread out over time."

Dan looked at her and she went still again. But, this time, she touch the clock twice. Dan doubt that can fix. 

"Mine also came from somewhere"

"How cool, mine too." joked "They also involved my family" he continued without realizing it.

"How cool, they involved mine too" she also joked, shyly.

"Really? You wouldn't believe it" 

_Challenge accepted._

_"B_ ut I hope things are better now"

"They will stay" he said, momentarily looking at him again "But now ... After certain things happened, they are clearer now"

"I see" assured Dan "They came clear for me too, and was here"

Nell smiled again.

"So this place must be really special"

She looked around again. For a moment, Dan thought it was happening again, she was returning to her world. "I'm not from here, but I liked this place. It's quiet and small." 

Dan smiled slightly. He could see how her mind was clearer than ever, how open she was and how it was freeing her and yet sensitive to so many things. He also thought if she was in her whole life, but, after something happened, that made her go to the hospital, which was then decisive for her destiny. That, by a close call, that hope passed into his life. If he could see her mind he wouldn't know if he could understand, any more than she could understand his. If he saw the remains of boxes that housed what haunted him when he didn't understand what life was like, if she could get lost in the maze that he once was and escaped. 

But he could understand that desire and that loneliness that plagued her and how he was accepting her. How she came out of a damn place and was there now, watching the streets, watching the cars go by and breathing fresh air. From a distance, observe small houses and buildings with a maximum of four floors and being able to reproduce in your mind by entering one of them and calling them home. Or in a corner farther away, but close enough to feel the coexistence of people and be able to call someone neighbors. But she would spend most of her time alone, or maybe she saw the family often, most of the time to see them well, she could take her brother there too. She has her own corner, her own bed and maybe an outside corner where she can think of the flowers she could plant. She would choose oleanders and cover the front of them and drink from her cup of stars, any drink. She would see people, talk to them, but Nell would be especially alone.

"Close enough to my sisters. Maybe, one day ..."

"You are very close to your family, aren't you?"

"For sure" she replied proudly "But we still have things to work out, I have to take care of them, and my brother. But maybe ...

"Maybe" Dan agreed "I hope everything goes well with them. And with you. 

Family is very important"

"Yes. We will be fine, we will. After all ... I hope I do too"

She looked at him and smiled even more at his smile. "I believe so" She turned for him. 

"Eleanor" said "But you can call me Nell, that's what they call me"

"Dan" they shook hands. "You must be hungry"

Nell nodded his head.

"Not much, but I am"

Dan hoped it didn't sound weird or ulterior.

"Can I take you somewhere near here? There's a cafeteria nearby"

"Thanks, but... Aren't you working?"

"Not at lunchtime" he replied "Just one meal, and then I can leave you alone"

"No, it's okay" Nell corrected "I think there's time"

They started walking next to each other in comfortable silence, but that Nell had to cut him off.

"Thank you so much, Dan"

And as Billy should have done with him too, he smiled. 


End file.
